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It’s been a while since anything got posted on here, so here’s a little update of what’s been happening this winter.

Wild Flower Sextet – Album Release Tour supported by Jazz Services

The Wild Flower Sextet debut album is all set for its February 2015 release and our 13-date tour has been awarded Jazz Services Touring Support, which we’re all thrilled about! Here’s a preview of the tour poster which has just been finalised and sent off to the printers:

The dates are about to go up on the gigs calendar so check to see if we’re coming to anywhere nearby – we are going all over the U.K.

Jiannis Pavlidis / Matt Anderson Duo Record

Jiannis Pavlidis and I were in the studio last weekend with James Hamilton’s New Jazz Records, recording tracks for an online-release duo album which should be coming out around Easter. We’ve also been doing a few gigs with the duo, such as last night at Newcastle’s Jazz Cafe – read a review of this from Russell at Bebop Spoken Here. This project is centred around standards, played in an open, often implied manner inspired by players like Jim Hall, Sonny Rollins and Art Farmer.

Jiannis Pavlidis / Matt Anderson Quartet

Another collaboration with Jiannis has been our new, as-yet-unnamed quartet, where we’ve been focusing on original material. Tim Carter is playing drums here as well as Simon Read on double-bass, and we’ve got our first gig with this line-up at Cafe Lento, Leeds, on the 8th May 2015.

I’m very pleased to announce that the Wild Flower Sextet album is due to be released on the Jellymould Jazz label this coming February 2015! It’s a real honour to be included on this great independent label, with some of their latest releases including great albums which I love by Tommy Andrews, Sam Leak and Hannes Riepler. See www.jellymouldjazz.net for more info!

We’ve also arranged for a 13-date U.K. tour to promote the album launch, including launch gigs at Leeds College of Music (3rd Feb) and Pizza Express, London (9th Feb). We are once again indebted to the great Jazz Services for a touring support grant here.

The artwork is nearly finished and I’ve just approved the final master of the audio, so we’re gearing up to go to the printers by the end of this month. Can’t wait!

There’s been a great deal of talk over the past few days over the announcement by Arts Council England that Jazz Services will not continue to receive funding from 2015 onwards.

As a young jazz performer in the early stages of my career, I must say I’m extremely disappointed that the Arts Council has made this decision. Jazz Services has, for the past 30 years, provided extensive support to the jazz scene nationally through a variety of effective, cost-efficient schemes that directly benefit musicians and, I would argue, keep the UK jazz scene alive. Most of these schemes are unique to Jazz Services and will totally cease to exist without its support.

For example, the Touring Support Scheme provides invaluable assistance to bandleaders seeking to organise national tour for their bands and is (to my knowledge) the only jazz-specific touring funding available. It provides financial support towards travel and accommodation costs which takes the risk out of the common scenario of travelling 400 miles for a door-take gig which you could very well end up losing money on if there is a small turn-out, but which you need to do to grow your audiences across the country.

Another great and unique scheme is the Recording Support Scheme, which I have benefited from with my Wild Flower Sextet project. This provides 50% funding towards making a debut album, which, for me and many others I’m sure, was absolutely vital in enabling me to make an album, another risky and highly expensive venture which is essential to reaching a bigger audience. Support is then provided as above to tour this album.

These are just two schemes of many including the Jazz Promoters Award (helping new promoters establish jazz gigs), International Showcases (promoting UK jazz ensembles abroad) and more. I must stress that none of the other jazz-related organisations that have kept their funding (Jazz North, Manchester Jazz Festival, Jazzlines, Tomorrow’s Warriors, East Midlands Jazz, Serious) provide anything that comes close to Jazz Services’ Touring Support and Recording Support Schemes at a national level. This isn’t to criticise these great organisations, they just don’t have a national focus of promoting jazz at a grass-roots level – it isn’t in their remit.

The reasons for ACE’s decision remain unclear, although perhaps we will hear more about this in the coming weeks and months. Whatever the concerns are, I sincerely hope Jazz Services can manage to put a plan in place to address them and successfully appeal this decision. Obviously we live in a climate of cuts where the arts are under a tremendous amount of pressure from the government, and that is a different debate, but with the value that the jazz scene brings to the UK both in money and cultural terms, I would argue that the axe has fallen in the wrong place here.

Apologies for the silence recently – there’s been so much going on that I haven’t had time to post about any of it!

Just to update a little bit, the Wild Flower Sextet album has now been mixed and I’m really pleased with how it’s sounding so far. Here’s a picture of Barkley McKay hard at word doing a live mix-down at Valley Wood Studios:

Barkley uses a mix of analogue and digital equipment for his mixing process, running everything through analogue processors, effects and mixing desk in a live mix-down onto his Mac, so you get the best of both worlds with the warmth of analogue and the flexibility of digital. The next step is getting the recording mastered which is underway at the moment!

We had an absolutely fantastic time last weekend recording the Wild Flower Sextet album with the help of Barkley McKay at Leeds College of Music. I’ve been listening back to the unmixed tracks and I’m really excited to get them mixed and mastered and get them out into the world!

You can listen to an unmixed sneak preview of the outro of ‘J.G.’ on my Soundcloud here:

Thanks so much to all of our backers so far for the crowdfunding campaign also. We’ve raised £546 which will be so helpful in meeting all of the costs involved in making the record. There is still 24hrs left to get involved at http://www.sponsume.com/project/wild-flower-sextet-album.

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to our Sponsume campaign so far for the Wild Flower Sextet – we’re up to £216 already! A full list of names will follow soon but for now check out our progress or get involved by following the link at http://www.sponsume.com/project/wild-flower-sextet-album or clicking in the box on the right.

If you are in Newcastle do come along to a fundraiser I’m involved with tomorrow for Jazz North East. I’m playing first in a quartet with Lloyd Wright (guitar), Mick Shoulder (bass) and Adam Sinclair (drums) at The Bridge from 2pm, then in a quintet with Simon Spillet (sax), Paul Edis (piano) and again Mick and Adam on bass and drums at The Jazz Cafe at 4pm. There are lots of great bands on all day, so it’ll be well worth a visit.

The Wild Flower Sextet has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Sponsume.com to help raise funds towards our debut album, which we’re recording in February this year with support from the Jazz Services Recording Support Scheme – check out the page at http://www.sponsume.com/project/wild-flower-sextet-album to get involved!

Here is my video pitch for the campaign:

There are all sorts of rewards on offer from donations of £1+ up to £250!

Also come and see us play if you can – we’re at Sela Bar, Leeds, tonight or Wakefield Jazz on Friday.

I’m very grateful that Jazz Services has kindly awarded the Wild Flower Sextet a place on its Recording Support Scheme 2013. The funding this provides will enable us to record our debut album in February next year, with a view to touring this nationwide in the Autumn.

Part of the funding requires us to raise more money from external sources in support of the album, so we will be holding a fundraising gig in Leeds on the 16th January (venue tbc) where there will be a chance to pre-order copies through our crowdfunding campaign, more details of which will be announced soon!